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Presbyterian campus ministry finds new paths during COVID-19

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What does campus ministry look like during a pandemic? How can campus ministers provide support and spiritual guidance for students? As colleges and universities reopen, here’s what’s happening in three places with UKirk, the campus ministry connected to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). University of Tennessee, Knoxville Rachel Penmore, a PC(USA) minister and campus minister with UKirk at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, had only been in that job for a few months when COVID-19 became a reality — the pandemic shaped her work almost from the start. A friend who’s a runner told Penmore that the COVID-19 pandemic seems like a race that keeps changing: first a sprint, then a 5K, now an ultra-marathon in which “there isn’t an end in sight. … We just have to keep re-evaluating and adjusting.” Since the start, there’s been a lot of disappointment — for example, celebrating seniors’ graduations online, instead of in person. “Our students had not expected to be at home with … [Read more...]

Tagged With: college/YA • COVID19

Presbyterian campus ministers adjust to uncertain times

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Uncertainty. As colleges and universities make plans for the start of school this fall and with the number of coronavirus cases rising in many states, campus ministers are trying to prepare — for who knows what? “It’s almost like you are having to guide water or sand,” said Gini Norris-Lane, executive director of UKirk Collegiate Ministries, the campus ministry initiative in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “Things keep slipping through your fingers as universities say, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and then there’s another press release or another email saying, ‘We’re having to update this or this is how we’ve decided to change things.’ ” Online classes, hybrid, in person — schools are trying all sorts of combinations of these class formats. And campus ministers are planning for a fall full of unknowns — trying to be flexible and socially-distant present, while also providing students with a theological sense that no matter what happens, they are not … [Read more...]

Tagged With: college/YA • COVID19

Presbyterian special committee discusses race and slavery with William Yoo

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What role did white American Christians play in supporting and perpetuating slavery? What lessons does the past have to offer the struggle for racial justice today?   William Yoo, an associate professor of American religion and cultural history at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, took questions August 6 during an online discussion with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s ’s Special Committee on Racism, Truth and Reconciliation, which the General Assembly created in 2018 and which will report to the next assembly in 2022. This was the second piece of a two-part conversation — following an Aug. 5 discussion on reparations with Presbyterian minister Mark Lomax. In providing his answers, Yoo drew on an essay he wrote that’s posted on the Columbia Seminary website — an essay that examines the efforts of Presbyterian minister James Henley Thornwell to search for a “middle way” between condemning and extolling slavery – in other words, to avoid schism … [Read more...]

Tagged With: race relations

Presbyterian A Corp board elects new co-chairs

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The board of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation, has new leadership. Meeting via Zoom Aug. 8, the board elected as its co-chairs Chris Mason, a ruling elder and lawyer from New York, and Bill Teng, a pastor from Florida. For the past two years, Mason has been serving as the A Corporation co-chair (along with Bridget-Anne Hampden, a ruling elder from Charlotte); he was elected for an additional one-year term in that role. Teng was elected for a two-year term as co-chair – with the board using a co-chair model but with staggered terms of service, to allow for new leadership to rotate in. Hampden will continue serving on the A Corporation board but not in a co-chair role. Cynthia Campbell, who chairs the board’s Nominating, Governance and Personnel Committee, said this model of leadership allows the co-chairs to share responsibility, but the staggered terms of service will allow for a succession of responsibilities as well. She and Mason thanked Hampden … [Read more...]

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Presbyterian special committee discusses race and reparations with Mark Lomax

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What about reparations? The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Special Committee on Racism, Truth and Reconciliation – which the General Assembly created in 2018, and will report to the next assembly in 2022 – dug into that concept and talked about what’s needed for a mostly-white denomination to have honest discussions about race during an online conversation Aug. 5 with Mark Lomax, who is pastor of First Afrikan Church in Lithonia, Georgia, and an associate professor of homiletics and worship at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. Lomax also served for three years on the PC(USA)’s Task Force on Reparations, which reported to the General Assembly in 2004. Why reparations? Reparations for Black Americans asks for a nation to consider the humanity of people who have been “grievously harmed for over 400 years,” Lomax said — by enslavement; by sharecropping (“a perpetual system of impoverishment”); by systems using incarcerated people to provide cheap … [Read more...]

Tagged With: race relations

GA redux: Committee considers how the 2020 General Assembly may shape future assemblies

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Just a few weeks after the 2020 General Assembly wrapped up, the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) is looking ahead – trying to figure out what structural and procedural changes are needed in the Presbyterian (U.S.A.), and what shape the General Assembly should take in 2022 and 2024. These are early, getting-started conversations — with some veteran members continuing service and some new people joining the committee. But it’s clear: Coming out of the 2020 General Assembly, in which white supremacy in a mostly-white denomination emerged as one of the post-analysis themes, COGA wants to look at what changes are needed as the church moves ahead. Another issue sure to emerge: how to cut costs from the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) budget. OGA already has offered a retirement incentive package to 16 staff members age 60 or older; they have until August 14 to decide. While the 2020 General Assembly approved PC(USA) budgets for 2021 and 2022, … [Read more...]

Tagged With: COGA • GA224

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